By Glen and Julie
The Airborne Toxic Event’s debut album produced a veritable embarrassment of video riches for fans eager to lap up whatever the band served them. Not only was the full album reproduced in stripped down fashion for the acoustic video series, it also spawned five official music videos, including two for hit single “Sometime Around Midnight.” For a band that would soon croon, “I Don’t Want to be on TV,” they sure did find their way onto screens with impressive regularity.
Does This Mean You’re Moving On?
The Airborne Toxic Event’s first official music video, for “Does This Mean You’re Moving On?” from their early self-released 3-song EP, is as noteworthy now for the hair on display as for anything else. Whether it’s Mikel Jollett’s bushy eyebrows, Daren Taylor’s fantastically unselfconscious mutton chops or Noah Harmon’s unruly mop, the band’s personal grooming choices take center stage.
Much like the EP – and indeed, the ensuing album – the video was a homemade affair, directed by friend of the band Jason Wishnow, who proudly points out that he achieved HD-quality on a shoestring budget.[i] Says Jollett of Wishnow: “Jason and I have been friends for a long time. We went to college together. We’ve always been peripherally involved in one another’s projects. He did a play in college that was set in a cafe. I was the singer in the cafe. He used to make short films and I would be in them. I would play shows and he would always say he wanted to play the bass. (That’s bass, the fish, as in Chilean sea bass. He wanted to stand on stage with an enormous bass fish, like nothing was going on. That’s just how he thinks.) He’s an amazing film-maker and the kind of person that’s always got his hand in 100 things at once. So when we were going to make our first video, I thought, of course I’ll ask him to do it.”[ii]
The black and white video, which received MTV airplay in the UK,[iii] plays with a triple split screen format, following Jollett as he walks the streets of Los Angeles and his bandmates as they do the same, before expanding to a singular image of the black-clad musicians playing and preening against a stark white backdrop. “Wishnow plays upon the mix of sincerity and stubborn denial in the singer’s words, as well as the breezy tone of the music,”[iv] lending an ironically light feel to what is in actuality a heavy narrative.
Even more fun than the video itself is the behind-the-scenes chicanery that was captured by one of the crew:
Sometime Around Midnight (Majordomo Version)
In a fitting move for a band whose early following grew in large part through word of mouth via the Internet, The Airborne Toxic Event released their initial video for smash hit “Sometime Around Midnight” through an online contest.
The video, which would eventually become known as the Majordomo version after a second video was released in support of the tune, debuted on Yahoo’s New Music page on July 10, 2008. It was featured alongside new videos from a number of other artists, including Duke Spirit. For 48 hours, fans were invited to vote for their favorite video, with the most popular choice to receive prominent placement on Yahoo! Music for the next month. [v]
In announcing the video, the band revealed that “it was filmed in April at the legendary Spaceland in Silver Lake, CA (and in various other locations around town), and directed [again] by our good friend Jason Wishnow. We had a great time making it, and we hope you enjoy it.”
The video itself, swathed in black and blue, is a rather literal take on the story of the song, with actors portraying the heartbroken protagonist and the girl he cannot have, and The Airborne Toxic Event themselves as the band playing some song about forgetting yourself for a while.
Gasoline
On Oct. 9, 2008, The Airborne Toxic Event distributed an e-mail to fans, inviting them to participate in their next music video:[vi]
So we’re shooing a video for “Gasoline.” It’s about bicycle culture and the east side. It’s at night, riding around the streets of los angeles in a big group. We’d love for you to join us:
when:
Friday, Oct. 17
9.30 pm – 11.30 pm
where:
Meet at the parking lot next to Pioneer Chicken at Sunset and Fountain.
what:
the Airborne Toxic Event is hosting a late-night bike ride around Silver Lake, Glendale and Los Feliz. The 7-mile ride will be filmed at different points for a music video that promotes bicycle culture. The song for which the video is intended is called “Gasoline.” Yep.
The route will begin with a short jaunt along Sunset Boulevard, turns left up Silver Lake Boulevard for a scenic ride past the Reservoir, then turns right on Glendale to cross the LA River on Fletcher. We’ll go north along San Fernando Road for a sampling of urban blight, then cross the LA River again on Los Feliz, turning left on Riverside to link back up with Glendale Blvd.
Spoke cards for everyone who participates. Drinks after.
Bring water and lights for you/your bike.
A later e-mail would change the meeting place to a different Pioneer Chicken, at 1321 Echo Park Ave. They also offered up CDs to those who arrived early, and asked participants to adorn their bikes with lights.[vii]
The ride, sponsored by Midnight Ridazz, was attended by a hundred or so cyclists,[viii] with a surprise cameo by a police helicopter and, regrettably, a knife fight.[ix] The band would point to biking inside the Metro station and Steven Chen wiping out on steps as highlights of the shoot.[x]
The end product, directed by Billy Johnson, intercut footage of the band riding throughout east and downtown L.A. with scenes from the night ride with fans, along with performance footage reminiscent of the “Moving On” video. Just for the hell of it, we see Chen on drums and Taylor wielding Anna Bulbrook’s viola.
The “Gasoline” video was released on Nov. 17, 2009 as part of an iTunes A/V Bonus Pack, bundled with the “Moving On” single.[xi]
Sometime Around Midnight (Island Def Jam Version)
When The Airborne Toxic Event signed with Island Records and rereleased their debut album under the new label, a new video for the lynchpin single was commissioned. The video was helmed by D.J. Caruso, an accomplished film and television director best known at the time for the movie Disturbia. Caruso also directed the 2008 film Eagle Eye, which not-so-coincidentally featured “Midnight” on its soundtrack.
In announcing the clip, which debuted on May 1, 2009 on their MySpace page, Airborne praised Caruso, “who—along with his incredibly magnanimous crew—did us a massive favor, taking on the video, offering his vision, his direction, his technical expertise, and of course, his time—with which he was very generous.”[xii]
Rather than portraying the narrative of the song, as did Wishnow’s earlier take on it, Caruso’s version tells the story behind the story, depicting Jollett wrestling his demons inside his apartment, scribbling lyrics on scraps of paper and, when that fails, on the walls themselves, as he seeks to give voice to the waves of emotion roiling in his soul. The woman in the white dress, played serenely by Icelandic actress Anita Briem (Journey to the Center of the Earth),[xiii] floats ghostlike through the room as if in a dream, while the band members likewise flit in and out of the scene like spectres.
Happiness is Overrated
The final video from the first album, for “Happiness is Overrated,” was released in June 2009 as part of a UK-only Happiness is Overrated EP. Said the band: [xiv]
It was directed and edited by our friend Jon Danovic and is comprised entirely of tour and performance footage taken on the road from Pomona and Santa Barbara to Canada and the U.K. and everywhere in between. Maybe you can spot Daren eating a sandwich on the hood of a cop car in Seattle.
The video includes footage of The Airborne Toxic Event’s infamous helicopter ride to the site of the 2008 Pemberton Music Festival, an indulgence which cost them their entire earnings for that appearance.
Though The Airborne Toxic Event’s video output has decreased somewhat through the years, in the early days of the band it was a key cog in their homegrown approach to establishing a name for themselves and building a fanbase – an approach that would soon find its grandest expression in the full-length All I Ever Wanted film, which would again see Danovic at the helm.
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Notes:
[i] The Airborne Toxic Event “Does This Mean You’re Moving On” (2007) music video in HD, https://vimeo.com/18745622.
[ii] “The Airborne Toxic Event new video and interview,” In Flight at Night, (June 13, 2007), http://www.inflightatnight.com/2007/06/the-airborne-toxic-event-new-video-and-interview/.
[iii] “The Airborne Toxic Event new video and interview.”
[iv] “The Airborne Toxic Event ‘Does This Mean You’re Moving On,’” Obtusity, (June 14, 2007), http://obtusity.blogspot.com/2007/06/airborne-toxic-event-does-this-mean.html.
[v] Erica Bruce, “Formal ‘Sometime Around Midnight’ Video by The Airborne Toxic Event Released via Video Contest,” Between Love and Like, (July 10, 2008), http://betweenloveandlike.blogspot.ca/2008/07/sometime-around-midnight-video-airborne.html.
[vi] The Airborne Toxic Event band mailing, Oct. 9, 2008.
[vii] The Airborne Toxic Event band mailing, Oct. 15, 2008.
[viii] The Airborne Toxic Event band mailing, Oct. 28, 2009.
[ix] The Airborne Toxic Event band mailing, Oct. 22, 2008.
[x] The Airborne Toxic Event band mailing, Oct. 28, 2009.
[xi] The Airborne Toxic Event band mailing, Oct. 28, 2009.
[xii] The Airborne Toxic Event band mailing, Apr. 30, 2009.
[xiii] RedUser Forum post, May 14, 2009, http://www.reduser.net/forum/showthread.php?29633-Sometime-Around-Midnight-The-Airborne-Toxic-Event.
[xiv] The Airborne Toxic Event band mailing, June 11, 2009.
Along with writing regularly for This Is Nowhere, Julie publishes musingsfromboston.com, a music blog with the bipolar personality of wannabe philosopher and charlatan music critic, where she is just as likely to review the audience as she is the band. Her first Airborne show was at a lingerie party hosted by WFNX at an Irish-Mexican bar in Boston’s financial district. She does her best to live by the motto “only one who attempts the absurd can achieve the impossible.”
Glen is the founder and editor of This Is Nowhere. He’s grateful for an understanding wife and kids who indulge his silly compulsion to chase a band all over the Pacific Northwest (and occasionally beyond) every time the opportunity arises.